2014 Review, What to do for 2015

Another Year to Review. I look over what I have done and completed every year so I know what I must work on for the year ahead. First I need to see what my check list for the start of the year 2014 was.

• continue to work on human figure 

This is one of this things that is a continuing saga. I will always be improving my figure and muscular understanding of the human body. Realistic or in a style, fantasy direction. It think the Lonely Love 2.0 (Wolf Head Piece) is the highlight of the year as my anatomy project.

• More hardsurface characters: Robots, Hardsurface, Fantasy Armor, 

I don't really have hardsurface so much as I do Fashion and studying clothing in multiple ways. How other people dress characters, combinations of hardsurface and clothing, what fashions appeal to me and why do I find them interesting. Breaking down the fashion mixing; how to sculpt and understand the stitching of clothes is general. No real High points I think; I am still working on my overall understanding of fashion

• Improve my rendering outside of Zbrush: Mental Ray, Softimage, 

 This is purely because of Marmoset Toolbag 2and it is a great render tool and really affordable. I just wish they would hurry up and have an animation import option but I think they have the unity input for that low point in their software. I am working on my animation as a side note and need to look into renderings within the new Maya 2015. So this is still one I am improving but its not so much as rendering as it is understanding good lighting and correcting the software as you go along. 

High points Virgo Magi (top left) the lighting in the environment and the character pose are all things I am proud of and Ming Hua (top right) the details in the face and body have been an exciting challenge and will always yet and still need to be improved

• More time on the low models: retypo's and more alpha modeling.

All of these models are lower versions from game to animation friendly models. I like to think I have improved from last year but I have been spending more time on individual models and don't have a large amount and assessing which model I would like to possibly animate or make a lower game model to challenge myself with.

• continue drawing and sketching concepts; have a more finished concept before modeling it. 

I have been more character focused (obliviously being a character artist), spending more time sketching and working on rough ideas that come to mind but the large amount of time has been on characters that I am working on or ones that I know I am going to model.

• More Quad animals less Bipeds and more alien designs; others concept and mine

 Can't say I have anything that will truly fit this category. I am thinking about working on a Realistic Pokemon cause its 1. someone else s design (always something to work on since I will almost never get to use my own concepts in a production) 2.practice animal anatomy within a fantasy style and 3. more real world driven texture maps.

• Work more with other peoples concepts

Batman by Daniel Arya 

(Not in image my apologies)Steam Cat concept by Brandon Liao

The Little Prince Redesign by c2ndy2c1d

Erebos The God of Dead by Peter Mohrbacher

Soothsayer by Baldi Konijn

Strength by Genevieve Tsai 

Bipolar Real Monster by Toby Allen

League of Legends Azir based model

Ming Hua from The Legend of Korra

(I tried to get all of the models I have worked on based on other peoples art and concepts listed or in the image if I missed one that is not mentioned or seen I am sorry)
I think all of these have turned out good and each have their high points as well as their own low points

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So 2015 I need to work on:

• Anatomy and Muscles groups; always, but more creatures and monster driven with human elements included.
• Fashion, more clothes and styles that illustrate a time period (i.e ancient Rome vs Victorian England). How to dress characters in a unique world
• Animation, I have a few scene I would like to work on I won't list them all here but it is something I would like to improve. Animation is not the hard part, like sculpting its all in reference, break down and understanding, I keep having a hard time with making functional rig that will work with my characters.
• Lighting and Environment modeling, both go hand in hand. I don't have any final versions I can show yet but these go with my animation projects.
• More Low models to animate and pose with; always adds to working on texture maps for games and movies
• Always drawing and sketching however small
• Always model concepts that inspire me, with the artist permissions of course. Good practice and something that I can always help me push myself. 

2013 Year Review: what to do 2014

http://djwiley.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-clean-sheet.html

So January 2nd at the start of this year I made a list of all my work in 2012 and looked at what I did, where I needed to improve myself and where do I need focus my art and study in which direction.

At the start of this year I made a list of what I needed to do:
What I need to accomplish for 2013 (for my art):

• Human body: Perfect Female Sculpt and do More male sculpts

Human Sculpts 2013

 There are repeats in each of these sections but that's because they feed into each other. My body sculpting is getting there, nothing perfect but I think I have the right direction. Like all art it is just working with it every day and just study muscles and perfecting areas. Looking at these I think my feet are the next area to focus on and back to hand sculpts as well.

• SOMETHING with hardsurfaces i.e. Robotics, Metal

Hardsurface 2013

This is where I have failed this year, This is my only Hardsurface character which I have actually gone back to and started sculpting and modeling him again; I have looked at more concepts and drawing and don't know what I was thinking. So this is a "must fix" for 2014.

• More HDR work and rendering

Rendering 2013



It sounds kind of silly but I am proud of my compositing HDR rendering work. I love the re-render of Hester and Rosa. Dion (top center) is one of my more realistic renders but there is still so much more I need to figure out to get it to that nearly perfect place. The Real Monsters (top right) did turn out well and all posed and render with Zbrush. I do need to perfect my render setting outside of Zbrush. From this the toilet toy (bottom 2nd from the left) is the only thing not rendered in Zbrush.

• Work on lower ver models

Low Models 2013

2 of these are WIP, my hardsurface character is not my favorite of the year, I see so much wrong with him and I kind of wish I could yell at my old self about how bad this is. Granted I am yelling at myself about things I did in March. Need to do more low modeling; depending on the project I will jump from my import alphas or start with a dynamesh sphere, I really enjoy dynamesh but I need to do more retypos on those models then. I also need to generally improve my maps and posing too as always.

• More drawing.

Drawing 2013

I have been doing more drawing and sketching, I think I went through 3 sketch books. I have stared doing something that has been very helpful for my drawing and modeling work. At the start of all my sketchbooks now I have the first 4-5 pages of nothing but simple anatomy drawings and I keep redoing them for all my sketchbooks.

First 5 Pages

• Monsters, creatures,

Creatures 2013

A small start, but I do need to work on my quadruped animals and less on the biped one. And do some more alien focused anatomy and design but I think I will start with studying other peoples work and then do some of my own design.

• Mouths from a Dynamesh Model, so I don't always have a closed mouth on the model.

Mouths 2013

I said this because all of my model had all their mouths closed and it felt like a really weird thing to point out but I wanted to get more expression out of my characters. This is really a mute point but I have started more sculpts with my alpha meshes, so the mouths are already there. I paint them in Zbrush but its usually dark and I haven't had a large open mouth something to worry about.

*A new addition to the start of the year*

• Other peoples concepts and style

Others Concepts 2013

So I did a little bit of this when I did Daniel Araya's Batman; which I think I will redo; and fydbac's Adoptable. But I have recently and I believe successfully modeled the style and work of both Toby Allen's(http://zestydoesthings.tumblr.com)  Real Monsters and Stephen McCraine's character (http://doodlealley.com/). I am thinking about doing some comission work. I won't make it super expensive and I will sell my self sort for a little awhile; I want and need the practice of working on something that I did not choose myself.

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So my new list for 2014 To Do:

• continue to work on human figure
• More hardsurface characters: Robots, Hardsurface, Fantasy Armor,
• Improve my rendering outside of Zbrush: Mental Ray, Softimage,
• More time on the low models: retypo's and more alpha modeling.
• continue drawing and sketching concepts; have a more finished concept before modeling it.
• More Quad animals less Bipeds and more alien designs; others concept and mine
• Work more with other peoples concepts

So there is my list of things I need to improve during the 2014 for myself and to improve myself in not only being a character artist but as a more well rounded artist all together.

The Clean Sheet

2012 has passed. I look at ALL of my best works and doings and see what I did and where I need to improve and set my sights for next year.



Make a list of what I need to accomplish for 2013 (for my art):

• Human body: Perfect Female Sculpt and do More male sculpts
• SOMETHING with hardsurfaces i.e. Robotics, Metal
• More HDR work and rendering
• Work on lower ver models
• More drawing.
• Monsters, creatures, 
• Mouths from a Dynamesh Model, so I don't always have a closed mouth on the model.

I did some work over the Christmas break/season and finished Zatanna. I also added 4r5 to my system, the auto save feature is really nice, but I hate how the model disappears for a second when I reengage the software.

 It was fun doing the frill/fabric on the corset.  Her hair was the hardest part, it just didn't look right. But then I looked at the Tpose of Rosa and realized, that it's because the face has nothing to it. No Expression

 So I started posing and was shift through Tumblr, and found a image of Zatanna with a cool pose. The over all pose turned out fine but I realized the most important part and something I need to work on. Is the mouth. I need to find a way to sculpt the inside of the mouth for my models in Zbrush. Usually I do the inside of the mouth when I make a low poly version and texture it that way.

I did some drawing as well. Something I haven't done in a while; it was nice to do something outside of tech land.